The expression was my favorite. "Grim determination" personified. Israeli sniper chick also seemed appropriate.So you like girls with tats.
Everyone who has bought a good custom 1911 has figured out the prudence of safety glasses. Look at where they clean their guns and I guarantee there are little circular marks on the ceiling...evidence of what velocity the spring plug can achieve when you lose your grip on it.
3/15/2016
TCinVAw--I learned to disassemble my pistols inside a large clear plastic bag...
Yup. Dry cleaning bags are for more than wrapping up the neighbors annoying cats.
I got my blood test results back and, while not in "dangerous" territory, at 14 ug/dL of lead in my blood I'm about 10 times the national average (in Canada) and more than a little concerned.
It is entirely a non-issue. Don't worry about it.
I work at an indoor range. I spend on average at least three hours per day in the immediate vicinity of firearms being discharging, and am about 25 yards away from high velocity rifle rounds impacting steel. I average closer to eight hours per day in contact with firearms that have been shot, and ammunition that sometimes has lead exposed. While I am required to wash my hands after working a range shift due to company policy/OSHA, I never wash my hands when shooting on my own time. I have had some days where I've spent the entire day cleaning firearms. I do not use gloves. I wash my hands when I am done primarily to get oils off. At a time, I also spent one evening per week dumping forty-five 3 gallon buckets of lead (complete with dust) into a container for being transported to a recycler. For that activity, I wore a Tyvek suit, a respirator, and gloves.
At home, I sleep a few feet from a pistol that was likely discharged only hours prior.
I even bite split shot weights when I go fishing, and have been known to keep spare lead air rifle pellets tucked down between my gum and my cheek.
In spite of all of this, my lead levels are within OSHA requirements for people working in a lead rich environment, which a shooting range is considered. The levels of lead in my blood are typically only a few PPM higher than what is considered normal for the general public.
As a casual shooter who does not spend the majority of their waking hours in a shooting range, there is absolutely nothing to be concerned about. I cannot conceive any possible way you could accumulate enough lead to cause you harm unless you were making a conscious effort to do so.
Also, if for some reason your lead levels were to elevate (one time the air filtration system malfunctioned, and we didn't realize it for a while, until our blood tests came back a good bit higher than normal) the lead cycles through your system after a month or so. It isn't with you forever, nor does it really last a particularly long time. So, not only would you have to make a n effort to get your lead levels up to a dangerous level, in order to keep them there long enough to cause you harm you would have to do it consistently.
Happy shooting. This may not be what you wanted to hear, but it is the truth. The dangers of lead are blown so far out of proportion it is ridiculous.
I don't know how you get that I WANT to believe shooting is potentially harmful. That's The LAST thing I want to hear. Based on the comments of many people who have been around the gun world for a while I had pretty much assumed that my blood tests would show that I had made a big deal out of nothing. It took me days before it dawned on me that the levels I got back were in different units than those used in guidelines and another few days before i could bring myself to do the unit conversion. Finding that I was 10 times higher than the national average and 3 times higher than the average 30 years ago (when lead was used in everything) was NOT something I wanted to know. What I had WANTED (and assumed would be the case) was that the blood test results would show that my concerns were COMPLETELY unfounded.